What's the best electronic guitar of all time?

Do you mean 'electric' guitar? Because 'electronic' could refer to guitar synthesizers like those from Roland.

As I intimated in your thread about the diff between '335s and Strats, I think the Stratocaster is the greatest electric guitar ever created, by a mile.

truelyana said:

Good point. I thought electric was electronic for short. My English Language understanding is not that wide spread.

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No problem. When it comes to music and guitars, electric is the term for a guitar you plug in, like a Stratocaster or Les Paul. Electronic refers more to things like effects pedals, synthesizers, all that kind of stuff.

truelyana said:

I have noticed that the Stratocaster seems to be the most popular among music players. This is interesting.

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It really is. It didn't hurt that early on you had people like Jimi Hendrix doing things nobody had ever heard before, and using a Strat to do it. Fender guitars have a twang and bite that other guitars just don't have. But Gibsons have a rich, full sound that is beautiful too. That's one of the reasons many guitarists will have a Stratocaster and some kind of Gibson so that they can cover a really wide range of sounds and styles. But if you only have one guitar, the Stratocaster is probably the one that will give you the most versatility. You can play anything from heavy metal shred to country plucking with one.

Gibson E335 Cherry Red wins it all.

(and make it left-handed)

What makes it stand out for you?

I loved my Fender. I knew it wasn't the best...but it was mine and it kicked ass.

The best axe in the world: my strat

ChunkyC said:

What makes it stand out for you?

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Fullness of sound. I could never make that thin strat sound work right: it just came out thin and weedy. I grew up in the eighties when everyone was playing hideous cutaway 24 fret Ibanez copies and trying to sound like Yngwie Malmsteen. I'd have rather have died than be caught with a hollow body. Then Britpop came along and loads of bands were suddenly playing E335s. I managed to find an LH Epiphone Sheraton II (ie a very cheap version E335) in a music shop and I instantly sounded twice as good as I had on any other guitar. So I bought it (and incidentally got seriously mocked by my ex-bassist, having made multiple scurrilous and libellous comments about hollow-body guitarists for a number of years).

You can't play heavy metal on it, as the harmonics just turn into feedback, but I mainly play arpeggios and chords with a few runs as fillers, and it's just about perfect.

Very cool. I think there's a perfect guitar for everyone out there, you just have to find it.

I find Strats do sound thin when jacked into a solid state amp. Tubes really warm up a single-coil pickup guitar, I'll never use a solid state amp for guitar. I use a pair of Crate V33H tube heads with two single-12 cabs loaded with vintage 1968 Jensen C12N's, and the Strat sounds wicked.

Another thing to keep in mind is hand size. When I was first looking for a pro guitar I tried all the available brands for sound first. I really liked Gibson's sound, but their necks were all too big for me to work with. (I have tiny hands.) I ended up with a Strat because it sounded good and had a slightly smaller neck.

I'll put in a vote for the Gibson Les Paul. Although I'm not saying anything against the Strat.

If you're ever get to the US (Tennessee specifically), you can visit the Gibson factory in Nashville.

Priene said:

Gibson E335 Cherry Red wins it all.

(and make it left-handed)

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That's my guitar (1968 ES 335)

In my band, the other guitar player plays a strat. We have different styles as well and the difference in our guitar sounds makes it so we never play over each other or overlap -- it almost like having two different instruments, not just two guitars.

The band played a gig last night at the Hotel Utah in SF, and we rocked. (Except for the occasional screw up, but that's live music for you.)

My current guitar; Gibson Les Paul Custom. It packs a wallop and I love it. A bit heavy in weight, but it's great. I installed a tremelo bar in mine and I took it to a shop nearby to get an effects box installed. That Les Paul gives me the crisp sound distortion I want. I also own this baby:



G&L S-500 Deluxe. Sounds beautiful. Not a fan of the Strat or Fender (although G&L was started by Leo Fender himself). The Strat is tried and true, but I just never liked playing it. I also don't like the Fender Telecaster, which is the first guitar I owned. Too twangy.

It's not all about the guitar. It's about the amp as well. You can produce a great sound with a crappy $100 guitar through a great amplifier.

Very nice Les Paul, that particular model is badass and classy at the same time. My personal favourite Les Paul to look at, though, has to be the gold top. They're just gorgeous:

I may be biased, but I love my Godin Radiator with the mirror finish. It's very glam!

I find Strats too trebly for the kind of music I play, I like guitars to have a rounder sound. I like Gibsons but do find them quite heavy (weight-wise). I'm happy with my shiny one!

Gibson ES-335

How can you resist?

I've always been partial to the Gibson Les Paul. I think it has a much meater tone than the Strat.

Yes, Gibsons are much 'meatier' sounding than Fenders, always have been. Even single-coil pickup Gibsons have a fatter sound, like my Melody Maker:

I would kill for these two guitars:



Buckethead's All White Les Paul and Matt Bellamy's Manson. I wouldn't want another guitar in the world unless I was given my own custom made.

Gibson vs. Fender is the electric guitar world's version of the muscle car fan debate of Ford vs. Chevy. The Gibsons, especially the Les Paul model, appear to be more popular in heavy metal, as used by AC/DC. Fender is used by lots of people. The Stratocaster is the most popular guitar model of all time, played by a long parade of stars starting with Buddy Holly. Gibson guitars have a long history with acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments (their mandolins are the standard for bluegrass playing), whereas Fender started out its business making electric guitars.

When you see an "electric guitar" drawn by an artist or cartoonist, it's almost always either the Les Paul shape (roughly like an acoustic guitar, three tuning pegs on each side of the peghead, and a solid body with the acoustic guitar shape but with a "cutaway" on the bottom side where the neck and body attach, for easier fingering high on the fretboard) or the Stratocaster shape (all the tuning pegs on top of the peghead, and the double-cutaway body shape with the top "horn" longer than the bottom).

Archtop hollowbody electrics, especially the Gibson ES335, are widely used in jazz (think George Benson), but whenever I've seen the "real thing" in a guitar store it was always several thousand dollars.

And yes, the Fender Telecaster does indeed have a bright, twangy sound, and because of that it appears to have been rather popular among country music guitarists decades ago. Now country music is (at least as far as the guitars used) much like rock and R&B of decades ago, so Stratocasters and Les Pauls are the popular electric models. I've got a two-lipstick-pickup Silvertone-by-Danelectro that outspanks a Tele for a bright sound.

There are many "clone" models of the Les Paul and Strat models made by other companies, usually outside the USA and imported, that vary both in quality and price.

Get a used $99 Strat clone. I've seen Squier Strats (made by Fender - an unofficial Strat guide says it has the same sound as a "real" Strat) in pawn shops for that much. If only decent amps were that cheap ...

Speaking of Squier, I think I just saw my next guitar.

The best electric guitar? A 1965 Fender Jaguar. Frigging beautiful guitar. Sadly, the guitar below isn't mine, but boy oh boy, do I wish it was. If I had an extra few grand, I'd have one. I've never in my life heard a sound like a '65 Jaguar makes. It's stunning and put chills in my spine, baby, ooooh yeah. My hubs and I had a Fender Strat a while back: sea foam green, double humbucker, rosewood fretboard. Now I have a red Gibson and a no-name acoustic for teaching my son to play.

The '65 Fender Jaguar....



And in a different color:

Jags are really nice. Another decent Fender is the Mustang, which is great for peeps with small hands.

My other guitar, now seldom played, is a 1960 Fender Duo sonic

benbradley said:

And yes, the Fender Telecaster does indeed have a bright, twangy sound, and because of that it appears to have been rather popular among country music guitarists decades ago.

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Here's the current master of the tele, Jim Campilongo, who used to play small clubs around SF. He uses the tele tone to its full effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwReoawq1S4

rugcat said:

My other guitar, now seldom played, is a 1960 Fender Duo sonic

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Oooh, nice. Did a guick google and sure enough, David Byrne of Talking Heads played one. They look a lot like the Mustang (which Todd Rundgren played a lot), but with simpler controls and a straight bridge pickup instead of both being angled like on the Mustang.

Here's a beauty shot of a 1960 Duo-Sonic